| This research examined the adult experience of transformation through motion pictures. The purpose of this research was to describe in rich detail the powerful and profound emotional effects viewing a motion picture has upon an individual. A literature review exploring the relationship between motion pictures and emotionality was conducted. Phenomenological Inquiry included in-depth interviews with 12 adult individuals who self-described as having been transformed through motion picture viewing. Three textural themes and eight subthemes emerged from the interviews: (1) Awakening to Subtheme A: Immediate Emotional Impact, and Subtheme B: Delayed Emotional Impact; (2) Personal Connections, Subtheme A: Identification with Characters, Subtheme B: Catharsis Generated by the Viewing, Subtheme C: A Guiding Force that Initiated Change, and Subtheme D: Unfinished Emotions Brought into Consciousness; (3) Permanence of Emotional Impact, Subtheme A: Illumination through Reflection and Subtheme B: Residual Effects. The study sought to understand the inner world of the research participants by incorporating how they experience time, space, causality, materiality, bodyhood, and relationship to self and relationship to others. Findings of this research support and illuminate the facilitative role that motion pictures play in accessing deep and meaningful emotional experiences for the viewer. This research may be used as a guide for those clinicians who wish to incorporate cinematherapy into their therapeutic work. |
